The hits easily outnumber the misses and it still teeters the line of the SHINee sound. ‘Don’t Call Me’ isn’t a bad album per se. But they now seem unsure of who they are and who they want to be.
It seems like the quartet are facing an identity crisis: they know who they were, that’s evident. Instead, SHINee meander through echoes of their past hits, chase the latest trends and top things off with a lead single that, for better or worse, draws from the most polarising aspects of fellow SM acts. But SHINee seem to have had little input, intentionally or otherwise, when it came to the making of ‘Don’t Call Me’ – at least when it came to the songwriting. Granted, that record was crafted under vastly different circumstances, following the tragic passing of fifth member Jonghyun in December 2017. The album comes off a tad impersonal, especially when you compare it to the preceding three-part release, ‘The Story Of Light’. ‘Kiss Kiss’, another disco-inspired tune, comes across as boys playing dress-up, with perhaps some of the most cringey lyrics on the album: “ Yeah I just need your kiss / Kiss your lips / Cherry berry taste, it’s sweet / Eyes nose lips, where else”. The boyband also try their hand at more sensual material – to varying degrees of success. But SHINee truly elevate the song to the next level with their outstanding vocal performance and harmonies – not to mention the ad-libs from Taemin and especially Key on the outro. On the other hand, ‘I Really Want You’ is a bombastic pop banger that captures the energy of ‘Dream Girl’ mixed with the groove of ‘Married To The Music’, all the while trying to ride that disco resurgence train. The album’s penultimate track ‘Attention’ is similar although not nearly as good, in part due to the use of a dated whistle melody as the hook. The former is a spine-tingling deep house production that harks back to the genius of their 2015 single ‘View’ and, to a lesser extent, 2016’s ‘Tell Me What To Do’. The clear standouts on the album are ‘CØDE’ and ‘I Really Want You’, both quintessentially SHINee but in vastly different ways.
The funky and bouncy ‘Heart Attack’ recalls 2016’s new jack swing-inspired ‘1 Of 1’, albeit without the kitschiness, while downtempo ‘Marry You’ acts as a spiritual successor of sorts to the ’90s R&B of their early releases. SHINee – aka Onew, Key, Minho and Taemin – take listeners from the beginnings of a simple crush to marriage and beyond, all set to the familiar sounds of the group’s yesteryear. READ MORE: SHINee’s back: Why the Princes of K-pop’s return is essential for 2021įor the majority of the record, the boyband present a grown-up love story of sorts.However, this through-line has entered somewhat of a grey area on SHINee’s seventh studio album, ‘Don’t Call Me’. SHINee are no exception to that rule – their eclectic discography runs the gamut from old-school R&B to dubstep-infused electropop – but there’s always been a distinctive musicality throughout their releases. And any given group’s next song or concept is as unpredictable as the industry itself. K-pop is an ever-changing landscape, there’s no doubt about that. But when it comes to their music, the Princes of K-pop still seem to be finding their feet after a lengthy two-and-a-half-year hiatus. They’re also back in a literal sense as a group.
Three of them are back in a physical sense from mandatory military service – youngest member Taemin has yet to enlist.